Promising People You're Not A Pervert Probably Won't Help Your Case

I'm not often in a position where I'm overly concerned that people will consider me a pervert. When assigned to go somewhere that made me uncomfortable and hang out there for twenty minutes, I decided to go to Victoria's Secret in the Church Street Mall. It worked far better than I hoped it had.


At first I was going to go play basketball with the guys that play every Monday in the gym, but I figured I was too likely to chicken out of that. I needed to go downtown anyway, so I figured Victoria's Secret was somewhere I could just walk into, and hopefully avoid eye contact with everyone. I know some guys that are totally okay with walking around in womens' underwear stores. I am not one of those people.


Pretty much as soon as I walked in the door, I was asked if I was finding everything alright. I was doing my best to stay glued to my phone, partly because I needed to be live-tweeting about the experience but mostly because I wanted to retreat as far as I could from reality. A few minutes later, I had been asked if I needed help by every employee in the store, as far as I know. They probably figured I was looking for something for a girlfriend or whatever, I'm sure, but I was convinced they thought I was just being creepy.


I had a really hard time just walking into the store. When I got to it, I looked around to see if there were any other stores around that might be less agonizingly awkward but would still be uncomfortable to be in, but no dice. I had to do it. For the whole time I was in the store, I had an immense feeling of stress. I ended up not being able to stay for the whole twenty minutes because that feeling quickly became unbearable. When I left I was highly relieved, but afterward, whenever I thought back on it, I'd shudder. It wasn't the underwear that bothered me--it was the obvious scrutiny of everyone in the store wondering why I was there. Whether that was all in my head, I have no idea, but it was pretty awful nonetheless.


I have a very strong (and often irrational) fear of what people think of me. I knew that wherever I went for this assignment I would probably have to face that, but this was definitely worse than I had anticipated. It goes to show how much I need to get over myself when it comes to putting myself in situations like this, because I'll have to if I ever want to pursue journalism in any professional capacity.

Interview: Kim Jordan

The subject of my interview is Kim Jordan, Performance Writing Coordinator of Vermont’s Young Writers’ Project. Kim directed Burlington’s slam community from 1999 to 2003, and was a member of Vermont’s national poetry slam team. Now, in addition to helping run the YWP, she also teaches acting at Champlain College. My angle for this interview was to get her to detail her life in the slam community, and how she got from starting the slams in Burlington to competing on the national stage to doing what she does now.

            I’m in one of about thirty metal folding chairs in a cozy basement room of the Winooski Mill. We’re all facing the front of the room, which is lit mostly by a single lamp next to a makeshift stage, on which stands a microphone. Kim Jordan, a woman in her mid-thirties with a forest of curly black hair and a broad smile, gestures to the front of the audience.

            “And for our next poet,” she says, “please welcome to the stage… Jude!”

Although she’s not on the list of poets competing in the slam, her natural stage presence is obvious. She leads the audience in applauding the next poet, then bows off the stage.

I sat down with Kim after the slam to talk to her about her experience with the Burlington slam community. She moved to Burlington from New York in 1998, and in 2000 became the host of the Burlington Poetry Slam, which was held twice-monthly at the Rhombus Gallery, a performance venue in downtown Burlington. The slam community quickly gained momentum, and once a month a qualifying slam was held, the top three poets of which would qualify to compete in a slam in the spring. The first of these slams was held in the spring of 2000, and it was packed. The top five poets that night, including Kim Jordan, became Vermont’s first official national poetry slam team.

The national scene was starkly different from the atmosphere the Burlington team was used to. “Going to the national level,” Kim said, “we realized our poems weren’t urban. They’re reflections of the lives we have… our voices aren’t as loud.” Slam poetry is an art form that’s all about self-expression in a much more visceral and revealing way. As such, slam judges often expect heart-wrenching life stories from the poets, which the poets from Vermont weren’t necessarily equipped to give.

Kim didn’t seem to mind, though. “[It’s] really about poetry, and about community,” she said. She collaborated with (and shared a couch with) poets like Marty McConnell, Staceyanne Chin, and Buddy Wakefield, saying that even in a culture that’s by definition competitive, it was never about the competition.

In 2003, the Rhombus Gallery closed, and the Burlington Poetry Slam closed with it. Slams have emerged in a variety of other venues since then, but never for long. “It’s all about finding the right venue,” Kim said. “[one that] doesn’t care if people don’t want to buy drinks.”

Kim was also reaching a limit for how much she could contribute to the community. “It was a full-time job I wasn’t getting paid for,” she said.

            While the slam community was dwindling, Kim was working as a Teaching Artist at the Flynn Theater and running poetry workshops in schools. Geoff Gevalt, director of the Young Writers’ Project, wanted to run a slam at the Flynn, and Kim was the natural link between the two. From there, she started work with the Project, and eventually became its Performance Writing Coordinator.

            Kim’s still trying to revitalize slam culture in Burlington, corresponding with local students who share her enthusiasm but, unlike her, have the time to organize events and even teams. She hopes that, through the local community and the Young Writers’ Project, slam poetry in Burlington can be as big as it used to be.